Reflections
by Strife Atreyu
Summary: Same crisis, different world. Can't a guy get a break? Rated M for gore. Co-authored by 'soldier against the numbers'.
1. Different World, Same Bull

**Yeah, yeah. Another story when I've come nowhere near close of finished with the others. Sue me if I have a proactive imagination that simply won't shut up about these things. If I had an off switch...well, I would probably destroy it. I like my imagination way too much to neglect it.  
**

**Anyways, it's a crossover with Shingeki no Kyojin. It's an awesome manga by the way, and it kinda reminded me of gods eater so, in the end, I decided to make a crossover. ****If you have any complaints, there's a goddamn drug I'd like to introduce called 'stuff it 'cuz I don't give a fuck'.**

**Very effective in its intended uses of ignoring long ass rants. Criticism, on the other hand, is quite accepted. Please note there is a difference between the two.  
**

**Also, my original OC from another other story will be used, since 1) I am too damn lazy to make another character up from scratch, 2) even if I wasn't, my psp has been confiscated by my dad (downsides of being a minor) so, I can't make another one without totally having to spend the rest of my day thinking about his bio, and finally, 3) Wolf has the best attitude for what I've thought out. (Yes, surprisingly, I have other OCs. I've only used him so far but...hey, sue me. I don't put all my OCs in one website.)  
**

**Oh, and there's reason number 4) I like using him as the main character. Plain and simple.**

**Anyway, other than him, there will be no OCs taking the center role. Most OCs will die painful deaths in this and will be dubbed as 'that guy', or 'this soldier' or even the occasional 'unfortunate sap that got eaten by a big-ass giant'. Most will die, but some will become friends, allies or the occasional motivator for the side-plot.  
**

**One other thing, my other story's going to eventually branch from the main plot of gods eater burst, so you'd better just use the original plot of the company as reference to the timeline.**

**Edit (May 24, 2013): All right, announcement! 'Reflections' has now acquired a beta. If you have the time, I urge you to go send a message to 'soldier against the numbers', telling him of your appreciation because quite frankly, the story seems a lot better to my eyes now that most of the many little problems I was too damn lazy to fix have been remedied. WORSHIP HIM! Or at least send him a virtual cookie...please?****  
**

******So...yeah. I think that's about it. Onto the story!**

___Chapter 1: Different World, Same Bull_

Footprints.

Big-as-_hell_ footprints.

He was used to seeing tracks on a scale larger than what an average human could create, but those tracks were something of a racial difference. Even the second smallest of all beast Aragami―an Ogretail―was something that could easily dwarf a human adult in sheer size, and an Ouroboros was something that could even overshadow this track, but the prints those beasts would create were not of the human sort―not even close―and were shaped by molecular composition to have the image of gigantic lizards or tigers―they were animal pawprints blown out of proportion by ungodly amounts. Aragami were not supposed to have human footprints with the sole exception of Shio... and even Shio didn't have feet this big.

Never in his career as a God Eater did Wolf ever think he would find a five meter wide **_human_**footprint. Something like this was unheard of. Doctor Sakaki had spoken about how humans and Aragami could get along in the not too far future, but this wasn't something even the eccentric doctor could think up.

Was this an Aragami? Was this a New-Type? Was this something else? He couldn't be sure; there were too many ways this could unfold to properly predict what it was.

"What do you suppose it is?" Kota asked him, warily looking at the mark of crushed earth like it was some kind of paranormal apparition.

Wolf frowned, gripping his God Arc tighter as a way to reassure himself that he at least had a weapon, though considering his mind was running with possibilities and unaccountable dangers, it didn't serve to do much to help him calm down. Alisa stared silently at it, yet her fingers twitched every so often, one of the signs that she herself wasn't unaffected by this sight. Fear of the unknown was what kept most people alive, but in their line of work, they had to face things like that on a daily basis.

He sighed. He should have read the fine print before agreeing to this job.

"I dunno," Wolf replied, "Maybe Bigfoot decided to take a stroll out."

Alisa looked strangely at him. "Really? Bigfoot?"

"What? You got a better theory?"

"Er...guys?" Kota interrupted, "I think we can leave this topic for now. Whatever made this track, I'd rather not have to fight it."

Wolf and Alisa glanced at the insightful redhead, and came to a silent consensus. All three God Eaters hefted their large weapons and immediately set out in formation, Alisa taking point, Kota taking the middle, and Wolf guarding the rear.

"Have either of you ever seen any place like this?" Alisa asked.

Lush, green forestry surrounded them with trees so high that they blocked out the sun and the sky with a canopy of dark leaves. Grass crunched noisily under their feet, and the air smelled fresh, untainted by humanity and much easier to breathe in compared to the smog-filled civilization of mankind. It reminded Kota of the landscapes he'd seen in Bugarally, only this was real and not stuck within the confines of the fields of fancy.

"I don't know," Wolf answered, keeping his line of sight on the shades of the trees, watching every shadow, every flicker of movement with caution honed his time on the field. "I'd have thought the Aragami ate almost all the places like this. I could count the number of forests I've heard word of on both of my hands, and I'd still have fingers to spare."

"Something seems strange here, actually..." Kota observed, "Nothing's tried to kill us for a while now. I haven't seen any sign of Aragami in the area. You'd think with all this food around, they'd be attracted to this place like Lindow to beer."

Alisa scoffed at that particular simile, and Wolf chuckled.

"Keep moving. We need to find a place to camp. It's getting darker, and I don't think we can spend the night in the trees."

"Roger."

"Understood."

**XxX**

"...got any fives?" Soma asked.

Lindow sighed and handed over the card. He swore Soma was using a mirror or something to find and ask what card he wanted. Both of them had been playing the game for a while now, and the albino hadn't missed a single number, winning every round without even so much as a smug smile.

"How do you think they're doing?" Soma asked, looking pointedly outside of the military truck to the forest where part of his group had departed into.

"Oh, they're fine. None of those three are pushovers, you know," Lindow said, furrowing his brow as he tried to decide what number to ask for. "Got any eights?"

"Go fish."

"Dammit." Lindow picked a card and placed it into his hand.

A set of footsteps from behind him told Lindow that their engineer was coming closer. Licca stopped behind the pair's seated position on the couch and leaned forward with a bored expression.

"Still, I wonder where we are. I don't recognize this place as a branch outpost. I don't recognize this place at all."

"Well, maybe we went back in time," Lindow said, half-jokingly.

Soma rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right. What is this, some sort of sit com?"

[Oi... I'm working hard on this, dammit. And so's the beta.]

"You never know, Soma," Licca commented. "I haven't seen hide nor tail of any Aragami here. For all we know, we're in a nature preserve in the year 2000."

"I blame you for this, Lindow," Soma said.

"What? What did I do?"

"You were the one who wanted to go on this mission." Hands on her hips, Licca glared pointedly at the former Unit Leader.

"H-hey, don't look at me like that! Doc wanted me to check out something in the Wailing Plains, and you guys just got dragged along for the ride."

Sakaki could be a pain in the ass if he wanted something bad enough. He'd make you think about his opinion, twist it around with a few words, then make you think it was your idea to do something incredibly stupid. Let it be known, Paylor Sakaki was a black belt in etymological judo.

Soma thought he would've been a great politician.

"Well, whatever." Licca shrugged. "We're here now. No use bagging on you about it."

Lindow sighed in relief.

"But I still don't get what happened." Soma frowned. "We were sucked into that tornado, right? I wasn't dreaming that part, I'm sure."

"No," Lindow affirmed. "You weren't. Unless you always have me in your dreams." (1)

"Hell no, that's only in my nightmares."

"I really don't get it though," Lindow began, again, "Old man Sakaki said there was something weird going on in the Wailing Plains. Said something about electrical fluctuations found inside the core of the hurricane."

"What's the deal with that hurricane, anyway?" Soma asked, "I've never seen a storm last that long."

"Some people say it's connected to the Aragami," Licca said. "Not to mention there have been rumors that a meteor fell on that spot and was the original cause of the hurricane."

"A meteor?" Lindow grinned. "Our lab coats are losing it."

"Don't speak too soon. A few years ago, Doctor Paylor got Director Johannes to launch a group of engineers and scientists to study the surrounding environmental status of the Sakuraba District, or what you guys now call the Wailing Plains. It didn't last very long since they were short on manpower and they started to sustain casualties by the end of the week because of the random Aragami attacks. Director Schicksal pulled the plug after ten days, and the group came back to the Den with pretty much nothing."

"So it basically failed?"

"Not totally. Aside from the crater, E-scans of the Wailing Plains showed climactic downturns as compared to the normally brightly weathered town that Sakuraba district was located in. Soil scans were brought back and taken into study, and they say Oracle Cells had been found rooted within the sediments."

"How do you know all this?" Soma asked.

"My dad was assigned to the project," Licca explained. "It was his last mission before he...well..."

"Oh..." Lindow said, simply.

Licca sighed after a moment of silence. "Well, that's only in theory. No use in getting worked up about it, right? For now, we'll just have to wait for Wolf and the others to radio in."

"Yeah. You're right about that." Lindow turned back to Soma.

"Got any nines?" Soma asked.

Lindow slammed his head on the table and relinquished the card. How did this guy keep on guessing it right? Was he some kind of reincarnation of luck now? Did the universe want to repay him back in karma because of his shitty childhood? It was the only explanation.

"Got any fours?"

Soma shook his head, "Go fish."

Dammit.

"Got any twos?"

God_damnit!_

Behind Lindow, Licca lowered the hand that held up two of her digits, winking ever so slyly at Soma as Lindow cursed the universe for the unfairness of it all. She leaned on the wall of the moderately large truck's inside, looking closely at Lindow's cards as the commander remained ignorant of her overview. Under his hood, Soma smirked.

Karma indeed.

**...**

He should have expected this.

Nothing ever made sense whenever he got involved in missions. He was a doom magnet, probably even worse than Soma had been Death.

"What the hell is that thing?"

Alisa and Kota stared with a mixture of awe, surprise and a healthy bit of personal curiosity at the giant... _thing_ that stared down at them.

Its skin, human-like and almost with absolutely no marring, looked to be a shade paler than what an ordinary human should have. At its full height, the giant could very well match an Ouroboros in sheer size, perhaps even taller by a meter or two. Its scalp was bald, and some parts of its flesh seemed lucidly blood red in tone, like it had been slapped multiple times with a giant paddle on certain parts of its anatomy. It wore absolutely no clothes, and it appeared it didn't need to; it had no reproductive organ to be ashamed of, and even then, as Wolf stared into its eyes, he found nothing but an insatiable hunger staring back at him.

Not unlike an Aragami.

Its face was a cruel mockery of human features, with eyes larger than anything he'd ever seen, and a nose too small to even consider proportional. Its mouth was frozen in a twisted smile, revealing human teeth the size of Wolf's whole torso, stained by what looked suspiciously like blood.

Wolf had to remind himself to breathe. Kota and Alisa were just as petrified as he was, looking at the monster with mouths agape and eyebrows raised. Both of them were three paces away and unmoving, yet neither of them were foolish enough to lower their own God Arcs. Slowly and fearfully, Wolf made his way beside them.

It growled low.

He doubted it was intelligent.

"...Hey, Wolf?" Alisa whispered.

"Yeah?"

"What are the chances that we just met a friendly giant?"

He doubted that even more.

"I doubt that."

Well, there you go.

With an animalistic screech, the fifteen-meter giant charged at them, hands held out to grab them like a young child - a demented, ugly overgrown child-thing left too long to rot in the rafters of an old abandoned ghost town house.

"Scatter!" Wolf ordered as the giant came at them, crossing what he estimated to be a dozen meters in mere seconds.

Kota leaped back, and Alisa broke to the right. With a mental command, the silver-haired New-Type began shifting her God Arc with an ease born from experience and began assaulting the monster humanoid with a barrage of fire. All of the blasts hit their mark, the bullets drilled holes through the giant's chest cavity with ease, exploding out of the other side in a flash of gore and a gruesome rain of crimson. And yet, the giant didn't even seem to flinch at its injuries and continued on to wildly charge at the nearest slab of good-looking meat―Wolf.

The God Eater brought up his God Arc and cut through the palm that reached out to grab him, the giant's forearm splitting in half from the force it had lunged at the First Unit Leader. Wolf was bathed in its precious lifeblood, the coppery liquid sprouting out like a fountain from the elbow and painting the grass red. Cruelly, the New-Type ripped his God Arc away, dashing into the giant's guard just as its other hand made to grab him. He ducked under it, his feet nearly flying as a short, sudden burst of speed allowed him to get under its legs and to cleave his blade through its ankle.

It fell to the ground as it suddenly lost the ability to remain balanced, and nearly toppled onto Wolf, the blonde avoiding being crushed by throwing himself away from the impact zone. A mighty upheaval of dirt blew up a dust cloud, obscuring everything from view.

Kota and Alisa's advanced senses helped them in that regard.

The strong scent of blood easily allowed them to pinpoint the exact location of the giant, and they unleashed a torrent of bullets unto the monster. With an enraged roar, the humanoid found itself peppered by the shots. Even as it tried to regain its footing, the bullets shredded through its flesh, unbalancing it before it could even regain a semblance of coherence. A shot blazed past the smoke, drilling into its head and shooting out of the other side. Its brain suddenly splattered the forest floor, and silence once again overtook the clearing.

It wasn't long however, that the flesh started to regain its mass. Cell by cell, the cranium was being repaired by a monstrous regeneration. Lost grey matter was recreated, crushed bone melded, and torn skin knitting back together.

It was mad now, and as soon as the smoke cleared up, those humans would pay. All three of them would p―

Its thought process was interrupted as Wolf flew out of the dust cloud. The giant's eyes widened ever so slightly as it was suddenly face to face with a human that had shown just how immeasurable it was to foes past. The gigantic gold-and-black blade of a Koenigsberg was the last thing it ever saw, just before it flashed with a swift deadliness, slicing off its head and severing the brain stem in the blink of an eye.

The fight lasted no more than a minute and a half.

**XxXxX**

_1- Well, __that_ took a turn for the creepy, didn't it?

**Right, now as you may(or may not) know, in Shingeki no Kyojin, the only written way to kill a titan would be to sever the brain stem, in other words, to cut the nape of the neck and injure that part so deeply that the titan won't be able to regenerate its wounds.  
**

**I will be writing a short explanation of some elements that will come up, usually by placing their given canon explanation or by making one as best I can.  
**

**Shingeki no Kyojin is a manga (soon to be anime) that is placed at around the medieval era, from what I could gather. In this world, humankind was defeated thoroughly by giants which have been labeled as the enemy of humankind. Sound familiar? Unlike in gods eater however, where an aragami cannot be killed so easily, one can defeat a giant by severing its nervous system from its central processing unit - i.e cutting the nape deep enough to sever the spinal cord from the brain.  
**

_Accessing database..._

_Database files acknowledged..._

_Glossary of terms -_

_**Titans - Given name for the giant humanoid beings that mysteriously appeared a hundred years ago. Not much is known about them other than they require no sustenance, and devour humans for reasons unknown. Generally, they ignore all other wildlife but go into a frenzy at the sight of a human being. Most giants reach 3-15 meters in height. None of them show human level intelligence(though some display surprising amounts of strategy) and as such, humans have given up on trying to communicate with them.  
**_

_**God(s) Eater - Genetically enhanced humans created for the sole purpose of fighting the nemesis of mankind, the aragami. Each candidate is medically matched to a specific bio weapon called a god arc as otherwise would result in the host's harm, death or mutation. Because of its size and weight, gods eaters use oracle cells to sufficiently increase their basic attributes to a degree that they may wield these weapons. Information regarding the Bias Factor and Oracle cells will be covered at a later date.**_


	2. Gods and Soldiers

_Thump_

_Thump_

_Thump_

The vibrations travelled through the earth's crust and up the soles of Kota Fujiki's shoes, alerting the Scout to the position of multiple behemoths―most likely more giants like the one they'd had the pleasure of meeting about half an hour ago. The sole Old-Type of the travelling trio stopped in his tracks, quickly craning his neck to the direction of the tremors with a caution so unlike him that it prompted his comrades to stop and follow his gaze.

"Something's wrong."

Wolf stared at the group's reconnaissance expert. He and Alisa knew the scout had sensed something.

And most somethings were never good for them.

Down on one knee, Kota closed his eyes, breathed in deeply and placed his ear onto the hard soil, like a child eavesdropping on a conversation.

"...There's... there's a large group of those giants moving... somewhere east of here."

"Are they approaching us?" Wolf asked sharply.

"They're moving away from us, actually," Kota replied. He stood up and dusted himself off. "It's weird. I didn't think they were pack creatures."

"I don't think that's why they're congregating," Alisa interrupted, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "Can you smell that? The air around here reeks of blood. A fight between those beasts must have broken out."

"A fight, huh... Maybe those guys are eating each other. It wouldn't be a surprise, all things considered."

Wolf frowned, looking to the direction where Kota had sensed the monsters.

"I don't think that's it."

A small, almost unidentifiable part of him shook with adrenaline as a familiar scent made its way into his nose. Kota and Alisa must have not been familiar with it; it was a smell he had grown used to a long time ago, back when he was still spending the better part of his day in the slums of the ghettos.

His subordinates stared at him as he hefted his God Arc and kicked off, dashing towards the origin of the scent without another word. The redhead and silverette shouted at him to wait as they attempted to close the distance that had separated them and their leader, barely keeping up as Wolf sprinted with a grimace curling his lips and a furrow creasing his brow.

"Wolf, what's wrong?!"

"I can smell gunpowder!" he yelled, and with that pumped his legs faster, prompting the rest of his team to keep pace.

**XxXxX**

The ground was pockmarked with craters, that was the first detail any of them had at first come to realize... but it was the least disgusting they had taken note of.

_That_ particular title went to the puddles of blood and assorted body parts that covered every inch of the area they ran into.

A cold rain fell from the skies and over the trio of God Eaters as Wolf carefully eyed the fifty-meter plus wall in front of him, not admiring its extensive height as much as he was trying to turn his eyes away from the hellish mosaic he had found himself in. Alisa and Kota, on the other hand, were looking slightly nauseous as they stared at the remains of a very much dead human―the lower half missing and leaving the unfortunate man's insides to spray out in a pool of his own blood. His face was frozen in unending horror and pain, eyes shot wide open as if he were still experiencing being bisected by a giant's incisors.

Sad as it was to admit, the only reason the three God Eaters weren't violently evicting the contents of their stomachs would be because they'd seen much worse in their careers.

'_And a little girl gave me hell for it, once_,' the blonde grimaced.

"You... you think..." Kota gulped as he averted his eyes, "you think there are any survivors?"

"The blood on the corpses looks fresh. The scuffle must have just finished a couple of hours ago," Wolf analyzed, kneeling down next to a woman who had lost a portion of her right chest cavity and closing her unseeing eyes.

Wolf was silently thankful for the rain―it was at least able to wash off the scent of blood from the slaughterhouse this place had become.

"Your orders?" Alisa asked, breaking the haze of silent mourning for people that were no longer here. People whose names they didn't know, and would never establish a memorial for because they had better things to do than bury every single body. Like trampled flowers left to die so new ones could grow in their place.

Wolf sighed and stood to full height. If he believed in a god he would've offered a short prayer to the carnage that lay before him... but no such luck for the divine. The only divines he had were the ones he had been given orders to annihilate, and if a god couldn't stay up long, then there was no point praying.

_People stopped praying long, long ago._

Heaving his Koenigsburg onto his shoulder in a manner reminiscent of his predecessor, the First Unit Leader surveyed the situation.

"I can still smell blood leading into the wall. The fighting must have gone on into it." Wolf walked towards the dark shelter of the eight meter-high hole in the building, "We'll assist in the operation, whether it be repelling the enemy or evacuating civvies."

A ringing sound echoed through the air. It felt... sorrowful, in a way. Wolf detected a hint of manic fear in the way they sounded, one after another.

"Church bells... those were sometimes used to signal invasion back in the medieval era, right?" Alisa asked.

Wolf nodded. "It's possible there are civilians within the premises, and that was used as a signal for an evacuation. Of course, it's also possible it's a signal to retreat," he trailed off. "Well, no matter. If the civilians are getting evacuated, we'll assist in the procedure as best we can."

"And if they can't be evacuated?" Kota asked, grimly.

_And here I thought you were the guy that would never say die._

"Then we focus on assisting the town guards to repel any hostiles until none remain... but... if worse comes to worst we'll have to withdraw out of ground zero, civilians or not. Am I clear?"

"Understood," both of them answered back.

"Engagement protocol will be followed. If one is attacked by an unknown, you may return the gesture as much as you like. If it shows no sign of hostility, stand down."

"We'll set a course for the nearest evacuation center. If we encounter another one of those giants, you need to sever their necks to stop them from getting back up. I'll take point. Alisa, bring up the rear. Kota, stay between us. Aim somewhere around their jaw line. Do not stop for anything. We can't let them overwhelm us with numbers."

"Gotcha." Kota nodded briskly.

"Understood." Alisa hefted her Arc.

"Alright, then..." The other side of the wall didn't look much better than the outside, he noted absently.

"Commence operation."

**XxXxX**

Jean didn't like hopelessness.

Hopelessness was a little something that had crawled into his throat and ripped his heart right out of his chest. Hopelessness was a little something that shoved his blood aside and paraded through his veins. Hopelessness was a little demon that had collected all your ugly bits, stored them in a rucksack, and spilled it all over you when you realized it was already too late.

He didn't particularly like hopelessness.

Nearly out of gas and with hundreds of his allies dead, anyone who described the situation with "hopeless", "impossible", "futile" and all those other pessimistic synonyms wouldn't be too far off the mark. The chances of them coming out of this alive were a depressing slim to none. That didn't hurt so much as the knowledge that they knew they wouldn't survive yet couldn't do anything to keep someone alive – the awareness of uselessness, one could say. The feeling of complete resignation was quickly spreading through the ranks, and he doubted people wouldn't start committing suicide soon.

Jean watched as a Titan tried to grab him, the five-meter humanoid cannibal not even coming close considering his perch on a building twice as tall as it, though that still did not seem to stop it from trying to reach from him even when its ugly head impacted with the side of the building, sending shockwaves up from under his feet.

"...Jean."

The familiar voice of his friend snapped Jean out of his vapid stare into the chaos down below. Marco was frowning.

"You alright?"

Jean frowned. "Titans are invading and I'm in the middle of the shitstorm that came out of that equation. Do you seriously think I'm alright?"

The look on his face served to make Marco smile slightly.

"Right." The raven-haired soldier looked down, grimacing at the bloody streets and just as quickly turning away. "We should go. The Titans might be attracted to this place if we stay here for too long."

Without another word, Marco turned. Jean looked at his back, then at his own feet. He turned his gaze to the hell in the nameless road, catching sight of something in the corner of his eye and settling his gaze on a man.

"Tom..." Jean murmured, surprised he remembered the name of that particular recruit. They had been placed in the same training unit, but they had never truly had a real conversation. Jean only knew his name from the other time he'd been introduced as a friend of a friend, and hadn't pushed it to anything above camaraderie.

Tom didn't seem to be in a pleasant situation. Both of his three dimensional triggers were being squeezed repeatedly, yet the gas that escaped the ventilation strapped to his waist could barely topple a house of cards, much less propel a grown man into the air. The Titans quickly took notice of the man's whimpering futilities, and moved to capture their newfound meal.

"Stay away!" Even with the rumble of dozens of Titans moving in, the terrified scream of the man pierced through the din and reached Jean's ears without any trouble, the fear and the horror seemingly magnifying the decibels of his voice so that everyone could hear.

_So that everyone could watch him die pathetically._

For all the good it did Tom, he may as well as have been talking to several stampeding brick walls, all ready to eat him up.

The first Titan, a seven-meter class, snatched Tom's torso with both hands, pinning his arms underneath huge, barely-squeezing fingers. Tom screamed, tears flowing endlessly down his cheeks as a rapidly growing stain appeared in his pant legs.

Jean didn't need to see his death to know that the cadet writhing in the Titan's grasp was already dead. Somewhere in his already twisted line of thought, he had already declared the man dead the moment he had laid eyes on him, out of gas and nothing but a grounded bird.

_Grounded birds were only lunch, after all._

Someone behind him screamed―Jean was too focused on the morbid scene unfolding in front of him to properly discern just what was said―as two smoky streaks of white flew past him, along with two soldiers that moved to save their comrade.

It was a waste of effort as a Titan suddenly reached out and grabbed one of them, halting the man's course so abruptly that he dropped his blades, the weapons hanging limply from the Titan's fist as the could-have-been savior then started to scream alongside his friend. The other soldier, a woman turned to try and get her companion out of the mess, was unprepared when another giant backhanded her into a wall. It then picked up her limp body.

"Shit!" Jean swore, moving to help.

Only he didn't.

It wasn't because anyone had stopped him. Hell, no one even looked at him, too focused with their own senses of morbid curiosity. The reason he had stopped was not because someone had tried to stop his heroics, not because he had been restrained, but because just as he moved to leap to the rescue, one of the Titans turned to look at him. Hungering, mindless eyes stared into him, and just like that, he was rooted to the spot, in fear of what would happen if he managed to even _toe_ the unspoken line.

"―No, no, no, no! Please, no!"

Those eyes were filled with nothing more than hunger, hunger and more hunger. There was no remorse, no happiness, no anger, nor any other emotions. It was as if Jean was staring into the very concept of starvation, brought to life as a giant man-eating beast. That stare alone was enough to freeze the air in his lungs and force his heart to crawl into his throat.

"GAAAAAAAAH! HELP ME! SOMEBODY SAVE ME!"

"I don't wanna die... I DON'T WANNA DIE!

The screams went unheard as Jean's ears were overcome with the deafening force, as if drums were beating beside him. His heart raced as he watched the Titan that held Tom bring the man up to eye level. His hands trembled in terror, anger and (though he himself was sickened at the thought) happiness, that the man down there was not himself.

For a moment, the world was silent. For a moment, no one could hear the screams of the humans caught in a predator's grip.

The moment was broken as a sickening crunch echoed throughout the ranks of the remnants of the Trost defense, accompanied by the agonized scream of one of their comrades.

Tom didn't die immediately. No, there were many ways to attain a quick death, but being eaten by a Titan was not among them. The cadet writhed and struggled, even at the loss of part of his chest. The giant gnawed into his flesh and bone like a dog would chew a piece of leftover meat. Blood spurted out of his body―a rain of crimson, painting the ground below a beautiful shade of lifeblood.

The humans watched on, unable to do anything.

_No,_Jean corrected himself; _we just don't want to waste our gas... so we're leaving them to die._

Jean didn't know how long he stood there, unable to tear his gaze away as his fellow soldier's body began to weaken, and his screams dampen. He just knew he only stopped and averted his gaze when the Titan opened its mouth one last time and bit the man's head off in a final explosion of gore. He swallowed down the bile that rose to his throat, and held a hand to cover his mouth and nose from the god-awful smell, cursing his luck for the poor direction of wind.

It wasn't over yet though.

The two others that had watched their comrade be eaten weren't any farther from that fate themselves, and as the realization dawned unto them, their lungs let loose screams that pierced the silence like a lance through a heart.

Jean closed his eyes, unwilling to see another one in such detail.

"_Watashitachi o bakkuappu shimasu, Kota."_

"_Hai, Rida!"_

The words were utter gibberish to him, but as Jean wondered what the hell those words meant― if they were some secret code or another language altogether―his curiosity forced him to open his eyes, barely catching a glimpse as a trio of blurs leaped off the edge he himself had perched on, passing him by without a glance to the side.

What's more was that he didn't even see any gear on them.

No gas canisters, no vent, no steel wires. The only things they had were the strange clothes on their backs and weapons that looked too large for any of them to be able to properly wield. Hell, he half-expected that one of them would get crushed under the weight of such bulky-looking things.

Jean didn't know if they were stupid, insane, or both, yet even as he raised a hand to stop them from jumping to their deaths―they were five floors up, and if the fall didn't kill them, then the Titans definitely would―two of them, a blond boy and a snowy-haired girl, used the edge to propel themselves towards the horde of Titans that had converged on their prey, moving too fast for him to stop. The last one, a red-haired male that seemed just as young as the other two, instead opted to leap over the group of cannibalistic giants.

And what a leap it was.

Jean had seen people who could clear six to eight feet with a running start, the foremost of them being Mikasa Ackerman, but when this kid jumped, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he made the ace of their graduating class look like a toddler barely able to walk in comparison.

The redhead easily jumped more than a dozen feet into the air, easily shifting his body to turn and face the ground, aiming down the scope of his cannon and blasting a fireball-shaped hole through a Titan's body. The bullet impacted with the top of its head and buried itself in the ground below. The Titan's body exploded into little charred bits of muscle and sinew, the fireball accurately portraying the phrase "going in as a needle and coming out as a cannonball."

The blond and the platinum-headed duo had twisted themselves midair as they flew at their target: a slow-moving nine-meter class that held the woman. Both of the strangers hadn't even talked when they mirrored the other's movements, shifting their muscles and striking swiftly with their blades. Their bodies twisted in a full circle as their blades unbelievingly cleaved Titan flesh in two like the tough hide was instead made out of hot melted butter. Both of them landed on the ground, knees bent yet otherwise looking completely unharmed by the more than thirteen-meter fall at breakneck speeds. The redhead fell beside them, his cannon still trained at the giants.

The freed female soldier fell in between the trio's protective formation, crying as the Titan's fully beheaded corpse – _dear_ god _that was a lot of blood_– dropped to its knees and fell with a mighty crash unto its side.

"_Sorera subete o korosu,"_Jean heard the blonde mutter to his companions.

And Jean watched as a new carnage unfolded.

**XxXxX**

"Kill them all."

As soon as Wolf had given the order, Alisa and he broke away to begin the first of many bloodbaths they would find themselves in.

Kota's Oracle Levels dropped rapidly as he shot bullet after bullet after bullet at the Titans in the immediate vicinity. Both of his comrades kicked off, dashing from opposite directions, yet towards the same enemies. Wolf had counted the ones still alive; eight were still kicking.

_Easy enough to fix that__._

The blond swung his God Arc wide, decapitating a four-meter class after it had lunged at him too predictably and passing its corpse without a second glance. Another Titan, one which seemed to be granted with a _slightly_ quicker wit than the rest of its idiot brethren, tried to stomp him into paste. Wolf threw himself to the side as the ground cratered under the force of the blow, yet he didn't spare a glance at the medium sized hole, choosing to dash next to a building and jump, using an overhead signpost as a springboard.

The nine-meter class swung blindly at the approaching New-Type, yet Wolf had rocketed through the air far too fast for it. The First Unit Leader had already placed a foot on the Titan's shoulder, pivoting on his heel and digging his soles into the giant's flesh before his God Arc lashed out and cleanly severed the abomination's neck.

The Titan's disembodied head fell to the ground, its skull cracking open from the fall and spilling blood and grey matter onto the cobblestone streets. Wolf leaped from the already deceased giant's shoulder at his last target. The Titan looked up as Wolf somersaulted, descending down on it with his blade's edge leading the way. The God Arc bit into flesh with a wet _thuck!_ through skin, flesh, bone and innards―muscles, organs and everything else. The bloodied blade came out of the monster's hide, the Titan's body crashing to its knees and falling face first onto the ground into two neatly-severed halves.

Fire soared over Alisa's head as she tucked herself close to the ground, sprinting past a Titan just as one of Kota's bullets blasted a hole through its throat. The ten-meter Titan fell back from the force of the blow, raising a dust cloud that obscured the approaching New-Type from view.

Alisa flew out of the smoke, leaping out of the cloud with enough strength to reach the shoulder of a seven-meter just as it moved to devour the man it held in its grasp, the blade cutting through flesh and bone before it could take a bite out of its dinner. Not stopping to glance at the whimpering soldier that ran away screaming, the girl dashed to the nearest Titan. With another swing, the nine-meter class suddenly found itself lacking a knee and began to sway dangerously, unresponsive to the pain yet not smart enough to capitalize on its numbness. It crashed to the ground, where Alisa finished it off by stabbing her blade into the nape of its neck, the red God Arc exploding out of the abomination's jugular in a spray of blood.

Cruelly ripping out her sword, the silver-haired Gods Eater was already moving, pivoting on her heel and smashing the flat of her blade into a five-meter's chin. The force of the blow knocked it into the air where one of Kota's bullets shredded its jaw and left nothing more than a headless body.

Not giving another time for reprieve, Alisa dashed past the fallen giant and approached the sole surviving Titan―a fifteen-meter class that made her look like an ant to a hill in comparison. The giant threw a colossal fist down onto her and Alisa leaped, avoiding the punch by inches before dashing up its arm and driving her blade through the beast.

Staring at the evaporating husks of barely discernible flesh left behind, Kota grimaced at the less than completely clean fight. The redhead turned away from the carnage of the battlefield and instead turned a cheery smile towards the two people they had saved. They looked like hell, but hey, they were alive and that was all that mattered until the next problem reared its ugly head. Smiling lightheartedly at the two as they stared at him with a mixture of shock, horror and other emotions that were too chaotic to discern, the redhead raised a hand in greeting.

"Yo, you guys alright?"

**XxXxX**

"_Yo, minna daijobu?"_

There it was again, that strange language. Jean didn't know what he was feeling when he had watched the trio decimate a group of Titans without the use of three dimensional maneuver gear, but it had twisted his already lead stomach in knots. His body was frozen, this time not out of fear but out of confusion on what to do next. The training camp had briefed them on many things and just as many situations, but what the hell did you do if your entire squad watched a trio of teenagers come barreling out of nowhere, dropping Titans left and right, and then casually walk up and start a conversation in a foreign tongue?

"_Anata wa shiki-kandesu ka?" _

Turning to the almost inaudible voice who spoke, Jean's gaze settled on what he thought was the leader of the trio―the blond teenager. He looked strange, Jean thought, because he gave a general air of being unceremoniously having been catapulted out of bed. Though by the... _boy's_standards (which Jean, of course, did not know yet), this was completely normal. And even though the teenager looked as if his daily thought process was exerted on finding the best place to take a nap, he lugged the overgrown slab of metal he called a weapon around like it was a twig.

"_Anata wa daijobu?"_the stranger raised an eyebrow as if he were asking a question.

"Sorry," Jean slowly drawled, not knowing how to communicate with the blond. "I don't understand..."

The stranger blinked once at him then tilted his head, before opening his mouth to speak again.

"If you guys only speak English, you could have just asked me to switch," the blonde replied in fluid English.

This time, Jean was the one who raised an eyebrow. "_Only_ English? What else would we speak?"

The blonde shrugged. "Dunno, but I suppose it's not really important right now. Are you the commanding officer?"

He turned to the group. No one spoke up, as if they were letting him test the bridge between them. Jean nearly scoffed. So much for comrades in arms.

"No... I just got stuck with the leading role somehow." Jean was talking quite placidly to the unknown individual who had taken part in a one-sided Titan-slaughter. Then again, after a day of swinging around and watching your comrades die at the hands of giant man-eaters, you could get plenty desensitized to strange situations. "And you are?"

"Assault Lieutenant Wolf Arashi, First Unit Leader of the Gods Eater Forces of the Far-East Fenrir Arcology: the Den." The teen raised a hand to shake Jean's, still with that blank look.

"We're here to help."

**XxXxX**

**soldier against the numbers: GERMAN. I THINK THEY COULD SPEAK GERMAN. MIKASA'S THE ONLY JAPANESE IN THERE. EVERYONE'S NAME IS GERMAN... sounding. Ha. Just a thought. —**

**Strife: A well found thought, I assure you. But though yes, it would make probably make more sense if they spoke German instead of English, where on Earth am I gonna find a big enough hole to shove a bullshit theory about how the group knows how to speak German? Besides, plenty of anime have people transferred into another dimension or even planet where the natural tongue is Japanese or whatever language it was dubbed into.**

**No humor in this one, but that's mostly because we needed to make this one a serious chapter. Don't be mistaken about it though, We will be mapping comic relief out – one of which involves Sasha, instant ramen and an irritated Soma. By now, I've learned that the best stories need to have an emotional outlet.**

**Forgive me for not updating for months, but this was a seriously hard scene to write. Explanation as to why? Yes? No? Do I care because I'm still gonna do it whether or not you answer in a positive or negative fashion?**

**You see, when I went over the manga, I noticed that there were plenty of situations that would have been a time for the GE unit to make its presence known.**

**The first one I thought of had been when the Colossal Titan punted a hole into the Trost district. But if I had done that, the swarming Titans would be too much for even a trio of God Eaters to handle, at least, not without using certain abilities I specifically saved up for the next chapter. In the end, I decided to scrap that one.**

**The second one was when Eren's unit was attacked, but that would make it nearly impossible for Eren to discover his ability to you-know-what. NO SPOILERS! So option number two was plane crash number dos.**

**The third one was when everyone was being a pussy and wimping out, bitching about how they were gonna die. But if I had them enter then, Mikasa wouldn't have run off and wouldn't have found what she found.**

**So I settled for this one. The part where Jean and the others watched as their comrades were devoured, and had Wolf, Alisa and Kota pull off a (god)damn genocide.**

_**Strife: I'm satisfied with it, but I don't think it's the best I've written...**_

_**soldier against the numbers: Yep. Gonna need more good stuff here.**_

_**S**__**trife: *slumps into a corner* I'm trying my best...**_

**Anyway, I was actually kinda shocked when I pulled up this story and found it had ten reviews and more than a dozen faves into it. I was gone for a long time, but wow! Just...wow! I wanna thank you all so much! Keep telling me what you think, yeah? PM, reviews, etcetera. I like feedback just as much as everyone else.**

**Also, to soldier against the numbers – PLEASE FORGIVE ME! I didn't think you were a girl, and had mistakenly jumped to conclusions. My deepest apologies!**

**On a side note, I have now appointed her (soldier against the numbers) as a co-author. I expect granting of digital pizzas to her! So if you would just click those six little letters near the bottom of your screen and write your feedback it would be greatly appreciated...hehe...**

**Seriously though...review.**

_Accessing database..._

_Database files acknowledged..._

_Glossary of terms –_

**The Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear – is a set of gear developed by humans that allows great mobility when facing the Titans. The gear itself takes the form of a body harness that encompasses much of the body below the neck. Though using it will allow a skilled user great mobility, it carries a large risk of overtaxing the user's muscles, thus special physical conditioning is required to use this gear.**

**English Classes – Many branches often find themselves lacking appropriate numbers for certain events that may transpire in their quadrant alone, and eventually are forced to request assistance from other branches. To minimize the troubles of a language barrier, all those under Fenrir's employ is required to learn basic knowledge of English, the most widely used language of Fenrir. There are classes and a full curriculum implemented into the Gods Eater training program, as Gods Eaters are the smallest of all Special Forces and are more likely to be transferred than any other.**


End file.
